Thailand's food exports are unlikely to see many negative effects from US President Donald Trump's protectionist trade policies, according to the International Trade Promotion Department.
Malee Choklumlerd, the department's director-general, said yesterday after a workshop on food and crop shipment prospects that the ministry was still confident in its 5% growth target for 2017, up from US$17.9 billion (619 billion baht) last year.
Mrs Malee said food is an essential product boasting strong demand worldwide, including the US, while many Thai products cannot be produced by importing countries.
She said that despite Mr Trump's protectionist policies, Thai exports of food to the US are expected to eke out growth this year.
Last year, Thailand registered $4.3 billion in food shipments to the US market, up 10% from a year before.
For the first three months of this year, Thailand shipped $873 million worth of food exports to the US market, down 5.9% from the same period last year.
Thiraphong Chansiri, chief executive of Thai Union Group Plc, the world's biggest producer of canned tuna which also acts as an adviser to the Commerce Ministry for the US market, said the US remains one of the most crucial export markets for Thailand, notably for food.
"We see the key drivers for export growth in the US market being innovative products, on top of quality, price competitiveness and environmental concerns," he said. "More importantly, Thai manufacturers themselves need to build up trust and creditability in terms of labour and traceability."
Mr Thiraphong said it also remains too early to evaluate the effects of executive orders signed by Mr Trump in late March concerning the US's trade imbalance with 16 countries, including Thailand.
One order gave the US Commerce Department 90 days to produce a report on the factors behind the trade deficit, while the other is intended to raise the collection of tariff duties on imports.
The US is Thailand's third-largest trading partner after China and Japan. Two-way trade between Thailand and the US was US$36.5 billion in 2016, $24.5 billion of which was from Thai exports.